A group of Lego UK employees built the Clone Trooper army in just six and a half hours to raise money for The National Autistic Society. The National Autistic Society is a british organization dedicated to helping "people with autism and Asperger syndrome live their lives with as much independence as possible."

Remember Devon Sawa’s character in 1999’s ‘Idle Hands’, a comedy / horror movie about a teen whose hand becomes possessed and goes on a killing spree?

Apparently this movie has some truth in it. The ‘idle hand’ which referred to as the ‘Alien Hand Syndrome’ is an unusual neurological disorder in which the sufferer’s hand seems to take on a mind of its own. This is due to the damage in the medial motor frontal region of the brain and often occurs after a brain surgery, a stroke or an infection of the brain.

The sufferer has no control over the movements of the ‘alien hand’ nor will they have any conscience idea on what that hand is doing. The person suffering from this condition can often feel disconnected with their hand, and feel as if it was not part of their body.

When the suffer is unaware the alien hand can sometime act out complex movements like unbuttoning clothing, using tools or even tearing pieces of clothing. There are no know treatments or cure for ‘Alien Hand Syndrome’ however the best solution is to give this alien hand an object it can play with to keep it distracted from doing anything harmful to the sufferer.

#2 You Could Remove A Large Part of Your Internal Organs and Survive

While the human body may appear fragile, your body is stronger than you could possibly imagine. It is possible for you to survive even after the removal of the spleen, the stomach, one kidney, one lung, 75% of the liver, 80% of the intestines, and almost every organ from the pelvic and groin area.

This is a death erection, which often being referred to as ‘angle lust’. It is a post-mortem erection that occurs when a male individual dies vertically or face-downside and as long as the body remains in this position, the effect will not subside.How It Could Possibly Happen? When a man is still alive, the heart pumps blood evenly around the body. When he dies, this mechanism stops and the blood acts by the force of gravity. As with any mass, the blood will settle at the lowest point of the body and cause swelling. So if a man dies vertically, the blood will settle in the legs and collect at the feet.

The pressure will cause the blood vessels and tissues in the feet to swell up to accommodate as much blood as possible. As blood collects, it will fill up to the torso and the blood will attempt to move to a lower position due to gravity, which is the penis (the legs are full by now). The blood causes the penis, consisting of erectile tissue, to fill with blood and expand.

#5 Heart Attacks Are More Likely To Happen On Monday

A 10-year study in Scotland found that 20% of people die of a heart attack on Monday’s compare to any other day of the week. The study suggests that the ‘Monday peak’ could be a result of massive drinking during the weekend and work related stress; you know the ‘Monday blues.’

#6 Three Hundred Million Cells Die In Your Body Every Minute

It does sounds like a lot but this is actually less than 0.0001% of the amount of cells being replaced in your body every day. (about 10-50 trillion cells are being replace in your body every day)

#7 Babies Have More Bones Than You Do

When a baby is born, they have 300 bones in their body. When they reach adulthood they are left with only 206 bones. This is because the smaller bones eventually join together to form stronger single bones.

#8 Your Hair Is Almost Indestructible

Apart from having it burnt, human hair decays at such a slow rate that it is almost impossible to get rid of. Do you remember those documentaries about Egypt, the pyramids and Mummies on Discovery Channel? Well the mummies are left with no flesh, practically nothing but bones and yes… hair. It might look fragile but hair cannot be destroyed by cold, change of climate, water, or other natural forces and it is resistant to many kinds of acids and corrosive chemicals.

#9 You Can Survive Without Food But Not Without Sleep

You need sleep as much as you need food. Many people neglect the importance of having enough sleep without knowing that humans can actually survive longer without food than without sleep. With water alone, an average person could survive a month to two without food (that also varies from an individual’s body fat and other factors).

But a few sleepless nights will cause the person to start experiencing radical personality and psychological changes. The longest recorded time anyone has ever gone without sleep is 264 hours. Randy Gardner at the end of which the experiment did not stumble or hallucinate but scientist has said that any more sleepless nights than that is dangerous.

#10 You Have A Philtrum

The indentation in the middle of the area between the nose and the upper lip is called the philtrum. While scientists are yet to figure out the specific purpose of this indentation serves besides allowing humans to express a much larger range of lip motions, the ancient Greeks thought it to be one of the most arousing places on the body.

I just received my new desktop hard drive for my computer at the studio to backup all kinds of work, and I had to mention here how impressed I am with it.

Lacie's new 1TB External HD is amazing!It's a little firewire plugin black box, sits nicely on my desk, taking up alomst no room, and it holds 1000 GB !!! It's unbelievable, how a meer 4 years ago I bought a 40 GB version for almost exactly the same price! It's incredible how much disk space has gone down in cost. This new Lacie Hard Disk sold for $353 (including taxes and shipping). Not to mention how sleek and stylish it looks with a cool little blue light under glow, very quiet and a super fast transferring rate too! Highly Recommended!

I had posted the clip about this idiot a few months ago, but here's an update.

Update: Corey doesn't wear shirts, but now you can wear a Corey shirt thanks to Busted Tees

This is what teen sex comedies are made of. Corey Delaney, a 16-year old Aussie, wanted to throw a party while his parents were away. He posted the invitation on his Myspace page and things just spiraled out of control. 500 people showed up to his mid-sized home and started destroying the neighborhood. The police had to be called in and, in the end, the partiers caused an estimated $20,000 in damages. The best part? He's not sorry.

His parents have since returned home and Corey is no where to be found. He's gone missing, most likely due to his (understandable) fear of facing them. Wherever he is it's unlikely he's in danger; he hasn't stopped updating his myspace.

Finally, a cure for herpes and linear, physics-based travel. This new ad parody from BriTANick shows drug companies that their is more to treating a disease than just getting rid of the symptoms. Check out more BriTANick at their site

Mouthmaster Murf and DJ Mayhem from The Anomalies reportedly spent two years working on this awesome rap narrative. That's right, 23 and a half months finding a word to rhyme with Schwarzenegger, and two weeks for the rest of the song. We'd just like to say, "time well spent, guys."

Shaun Ellis is manly. Not only is he a wolf expert and former marine, but he's now joined a pack of wolves. He's raising three cubs in the wild and mimics wolf behavior to help them learn. It looks completely insane.

June 24, 2008

Student goes on stage in front of his whole class and proceeds to offend everyone in this hilarious speech. I'm pretty sure everyone voted for him. I'm not so sure the school administration let him speak at graduation. The fellow in the video's name is Brandon Rosario, and you can read more about his speech and the controversy it created HERE!

Finally, all of The Office's that's-what-she-said moments together in one video. It's a wild, non-stop thrill ride, the best 5 minutes of your life. It'll leave you begging for more because you'll want to experience it over and over again. When it's finally over you'll want cuddle with it until you fall asleep. In the morning, you'll wake up early and make it pancakes.

The Mars Lander’s mission on the fourth planet from the Sun is a dream come true for many scientists who have been trying for decades to prove that there is indeed water on Mars, and that where there’s water, there could be life.

NASA’s Phoenix lander recently discovered chunks of bright materials near the surface of the planet, which at a first glance appeared to be ice. Mission investigators were convinced: could it be anything else?

At the time, the answer would have been yes, as some feared those could have been in fact salt deposits. However, their complete disappearance in just days after they had been uncovered made it clear: it was water ice, as scientists confirmed last week.

Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson explained that their disappearance was a confirmation that the images sent by the Mars Lander depicted ice: “salt can’t do that.”

The phenomenon couldn’t be clearer, and sublimation (the transition from a solid phase to a gas phase with no intermediate liquid phase) is the key word here: scientists explained that the chunks of ice evaporated after coming in direct contact with the Martian atmosphere.

As Phoenix’s robotic arm continues its digging, preparing us for a possible encounter with another icy layer, the science team in charge of the mission has a lot to do. Finding water (in solid phase) on Mars is just one of the elements that could answer the big question: has life on Mars ever been possible?

With the help of the instruments onboard, scientists will try to establish through detailed analysis whether the environment below the surface of the planet is or has even been favorable to microbial life.

So far, Phoenix’s Mars mission gave hope to scientists and enthusiasts likewise in their mission to discover life somewhere in the Solar System.

The key evidence brought to light in the first month of the lander’s mission is a sign that Phoenix is on the right track, and that what some reject as pure wishful thinking could be in fact as close to reality as it gets: we’ve got water, let’s find life! [via efluxmeduia.com]

George Carlin, an irreverent US comedian who was arrested for offensive language after performances of his cult routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television", has died in California of heart failure. He was 71.

Carlin was admitted to a Santa Monica hospital yesterday complaining of chest pain and died last evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had a history of heart trouble and drug dependency.

He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. The previous week it was announced that he was to be awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humour.

Carlin constantly pushed the envelope with his jokes, particularly with his most celebrated and controversial routine. When he uttered all seven words during a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested for disturbing the peace. When they were played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in 1978 upholding the government’s power to punish stations for broadcasting offensive language.

“So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I’m perversely kind of proud of,” he said earlier this year.

Carlin hosted the first ever broadcast of the late night comedy show Saturday Night Live while high on drugs, noting on his website that he was “loaded on cocaine all week long”.

He was a cynic with a gloomy view of mankind. “The world is a big theatre-in-the-round as far as I’m concerned, and I’d love to watch it spin itself into oblivion,” he said. “Tune in and watch the human adventure.”

Carlin was born on May 12, 1937, and he and his brother were given a working-class Irish upbringing in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan by their single mother. He kept the nuns at his school entertained with his jokes.

He dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, and joined the Air Force aged 17 in 1954. He claimed on his website that he received three court-martials and numerous disciplinary punishments.

After receiving a general discharge in 1957, he took an announcing job at a radio station in Boston. It didn't last. “Fired after three months for driving mobile news van to New York to buy pot,” his website claims.

Carlin took various temporary jobs, including as a carnival organist, a radio disc jockey and marketing peanut brittle, while he tried to get his comedy breakthrough, developing such characters as Al Sleet, a “hippie-dippie weatherman”.

His first chance came in 1960, after he and a friend, Jack Burns, moved to Hollywood to perform in nightclubs as a comedy double act, and were invited to appear on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar. But it was to be 1967 before he made his first solo television performance.

Not long after this, his act underwent a dramatic change. Carlin had once hoped to emulate the gentle humour of his childhood hero, Danny Kaye. When he found that this kindly vein of comedy didn't work for him, he developed a new style of edgy, provocative material, influenced by Lenny Bruce and Bob Newhart. At first his new, foul-mouthed act cost him bookings and popularity, but within a couple of years it paid off, as he was taken up by younger, more disaffected audiences.

His comedy revolved around a central theme: humanity is a cursed, doomed species. “I don’t have any beliefs or allegiances. I don’t believe in this country, I don’t believe in religion, or a god, and I don’t believe in all these man-made institutional ideas,” he said.

Balding and bearded, in the 1970s Carlin achieved the status of an anti-establishment icon with stand-up routines full of drug references. In the 1978 legal case that surrounded his "Seven Words..." routine, Federal Communications Commission vs Pacifica Foundation, the highest court in America ruled that the words cited in Carlin’s routine were indecent, and that the government’s broadcast regulator could ban them from being aired at times when children might be listening.

Drug addiction plagued him for much of his life, beginning with marijuana as a teenager, graduating to cocaine in the 1970s, and then to prescription painkillers and wine. During the cocaine years, Carlin ignored his finances and ended up owing about $3 million in back taxes. In 2004, he entered a Los Angeles rehab clinic for his alcohol and Vicodin abuse.

He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several films, including Bill and Ted's Awesome Adventure. He recently voiced a hippie Volkswagen bus named Fillmore in the Pixar cartoon Cars.

Carlin is survived by his second wife Sally Wade, and his daughter Kelly Carlin McCall. His first wife, Brenda, died of cancer in 1997. [Via TimesOnline]

UFO enthusiasts got a boost Friday when Welsh police confirmed that one of their helicopter crews had spotted an "unusual aircraft" flying over Cardiff earlier this month in London.

An investigation into the sighting had been launched, they said. The police clarification came after tabloid newspaper The Sun reported a UFO had "attacked" a police helicopter, following it for several miles over the Bristol Channel.

"The pilot banked sharply to avoid being hit, then launched into a high-speed pursuit. But he was forced to give up the chase as the helicopter's fuel ran low -- and the UFO escaped," the tabloid reported.

The helicopter crew had described the object as "flying saucer-shaped and circled by flashing lights," it added.

That description was rather more dramatic than the official police version, which said: "South Wales Police can confirm its air support unit sighted an unusual aircraft.

"This was reported to the relevant authorities for their investigation," they added in a brief statement, avoiding the use of the term "UFO", or Unidentified Flying Object.

At the time of the incident, the helicopter with three men on board was waiting to land at the St Athan RAF base near Cardiff. The sighting reportedly took place at 00:40 am (23:40 GMT) on June 8.

South Wales Police denied there was a pursuit and indicated that the helicopter crew was never in any danger.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said it had heard nothing about the incident.

"But it is certainly not advisable for police helicopters to go chasing what they think are UFOs," he added. [Via Yahoo News]

The first is entitled Dirty World and follows graffiti artist Moose around as he works on a huge mural. The second is entitled Ossario and follows artist Alexandre Orion as he cleans off a wall in the city with a rag, leaving a trail of ominous skulls in his wake. Police try to stop him but quickly find out that cleaning public property is not an offense. [Via mumbojumbodaily.com]

June 20, 2008

What do Saturn's rings look like from the other side? From Earth, we usually see Saturn's rings from the same side of the ring plane that the Sun illuminates them. Geometrically, in the above picture taken in April by the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn, the Sun is behind the camera but on the other side of the ring plane. This vantage point, specifically 17 degrees above the ring plane, gives a breathtaking views of the most splendid ring system in the Solar System. Strangely, the rings have similarities to a photographic negative of a front view. The ring brightness as recorded from different angles indicates ring thickness and particle density of ring particles. Elsewhere, ring shadows can be seen on the sunlit face of Saturn, shown sporting numerous cloud structures in nearly true color.

Positioned at a spot near Tower Bridge, it allows people to watch their counterparts in New York, peering through an identical scope near the Brooklyn Bridge. It is the invention of Paul St George, a 53-year-old artist in based in London who - using broadband internet cable to transmit video images between the two venues at high speed - gives the impression that the two cities are connected via a telescope under the Atlantic sea.For £1 a go, people will be able to wave down a massive viewing pipe into the earth and see New Yorkers waving back.

It is the first time that spectators will be able to have a real-time,life-size view across the pond 24 hours a day. Nicky Webb, the director of the Telectroscope production company, Artichoke, said: “You are not going to spend four hours looking down this Telectroscope, but there are all sorts of lovely possibilities, you could arrange to meet friends in New York or even propose marriage down it! "Schools in Southwark and New York will be twinning up and using it. Its aim is to be something huge, impressive and magical.”

A contestant on Deal or No Deal focuses so hard on trying to guess which steel briefcase is the best that she fails to notice who is holding them. To be fair, "game show winner" isn't exactly the most intellectually demanding way to strike it rich.

After 19 seasons, 418 episodes and a movie, The Simpsons have proven one thing. The series has had it's highs and it's lows but the couch has remained the same. They have a damn fine couch. Any other couch would have crumbled after all the abuse.

Game shows can be confusing. There are lots of bright, flashing lights. The music is loud and exciting. Drew Carry is there. It's easy to get disoriented and make a mistake. This woman, on the other hand, does not understand how The Price Is Right works.

Following the success of the US adaption of The Office, the Japanese have jumped on board with their own adaption of the adaption. It's the same great office you've grown to love. Everything is just a bit more Japanese.

The video game "Spore" has been in development for years, I've seen behind the scenes clips and all that on YouTube along with gameplay teasers, and just to let you know I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means. I dust off my PS2 maybe once per month for a quick game and that's it.

As can see this as an amazing reference tool for if you're working on a web cartoon, TV series or film that has many different creature designs, you can literally re-create them in 3D according to the models and hit 'test drive' and you can see it in motion! It's the ultimate reference guide.

You can create almost ANY type of creature, with 1, 2, 3, 4 or 8 legs, multiple heads, several eyes, many different types of appendages, tails, ANYTHING, it's so much fun. and AMAZING REFERENCE for any animator. If only actual 3D modeling and animation could be so simple.

If you're working on any sort of series with animal animation, you can literally build your own animal, hit play and the game makes it jump, and walk for you.

It all starts with a torso and spine and you have total control over the shape, length, color, texture, and form of the creature.

Depending on how wild and unrealistic the anatomy you create is, the quality of animation and weight-distribution varies, but it 'rigs' and builds the skeletal structure as you add on and morph the creatures build to whatever you need. Pictured below is a creature (and it's offspring) that I made in virtually 7 minutes. I'd show you how he walks, jumps, swings and screams but you need to register with Spore first to do that. The actual full blown game is out in September apparently, where you begin as a single-cell organism and evolve into advance life forms by growing, multiplying, exploring, and colonizing.

Over the last decade, Bob the Builder has built himself an extraordinary worldwide franchise, based on his stop-motion exploits... Eight classic seasons... An eco-town spin-off... Four feature-length films... Four more specials... And more...

But now, the building work has come to end. Or rather, it's come to its end in stop-motion form, with the news that his next series is to be produced as an all-CGI show. HIT Entertainment have just announced plans for SD Entertainment in LA to take over production duties on the main show from the folks at HOT Animation - something that was flagged up on this sitea while back, but which has now, almost inevitably, come to pass...

Of course, the HIT publicity wagon is playing up the move. Bob's been with us for ten years, after all. It's time for a change. Something new. The change has only come about after eighteen months of research, and this CGI shift is intended to improve the emotional connection between the characters and viewers (C21media)...

But you know, for this particular viewer, Bob was working just fine as he was. Stop-motion beguiles and delights. It draws an audience in with its magic in a way that can never be matched in a CGI production. For kids watching these shows, it's like seeing their own little model toys coming to life in front of their eyes. And in HOT's hands, Bob, Wendy, Spud and the gang completely bedazzled their audience...

Look, there's a reason why adults and children will watch films like "Nightmare Before Xmas" or "Curse of the Were-Rabbit" over and over and over again, and why, forty years on, we're still watching those little worlds of Gordon Murray and the SmallFilms partnership. They have a unique fascination. The crew on these productions have to construct an entire bespoke world. All the figures, all the props, the scenery, the minutiae have been built by human hands... And behold... they live, they breathe!... Oh...CGI just can't match that... even at its very Pixar-like best, the magic is different... the attraction changes... that unique and specific connection is gone...

Now that's not to say that Bob's new show won't be fine and shiny. But it will no longer stand out from the crowd. It will no longerbeguile.

So certainly, we'll wish Bob all the very best. He's off on an a new adventure, and hopefully he'll be keeping his parent firm happy for years to come. But there's no escaping the fact that a siginficant portion of his audience will see things differently. In their eyes, Bob's laid his last brick, he's hung up his hard hat and sold-up his family firm.

June 18, 2008

Balakov outdid himself in his amazing Flickr set, where he reenacts famous historical photos with legos. I have many fond memories playing with legos as a kid. Honestly they are the best toy for a kid to have because it let’s them learn how to first follow directions, then build and create whatever they want once they get good enough. I literally had thousands of them and used to store them in a big 5 gallon pain bucket!

Slated for worldwide theatrical release in 2009, ASTRO BOY will feature the voices of Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy and Eugene Levy with Freddie Highmore in the title role. David Bowers is directing ASTRO BOY from a screenplay written by Timothy Harris, with Maryann Garger producing.

The announcement was made by Rob Friedman, Co-Chairman and CEO of Summit Ent. and Douglas Glen, CEO of Imagi Studios.

"We are pleased to join with Imagi Studios in bringing the exceptional world of ASTRO BOY to both existing and a new generation of fans alike," said Friedman. "The team at Imagi Studios is capturing the spirit of this popular post-modern franchise by doing great things with the story, characters and animation. ASTRO BOY promises to be an excellent addition to our existing slate of family films."

ASTRO BOY was created by the "god of manga," Japan's Osamu Tezuka, in the early 1950s. The iconic character has since found wide popularityaround the world as the hero of three acclaimed animated television series spanning the past four decades, besides being one of the top licensed properties for merchandising.Set in futuristic Metro City, Imagi Studios' ASTRO BOY is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist to replace the son he has lost. Unable to fulfill the grieving father's expectations, he embarks on a journey in search of acceptance, experiencing betrayal and a netherworld of robot gladiators, before hereturns to save Metro City and reconcile with the man who had rejectedhim.

ASTRO BOY is the second CG-animated feature film from Imagi Studios,following its 2007 release TMNT.